! ! THE ! ! Vol 11 MAIN LINE No 1 The Monthly Bulletin of the New England Electric Railway Historical Society Libraries March 2019 For those in distant places - Spring seems to actually have arrived here with snow melting, showers, and the sunlight actually having warmth in it. Now if the weather will just cooperate inland and upcountry with warm days and freezing nights so the maple sap will flow in quantity all will be well! Also, The Main Line has crossed another threshold as this is edition number one of volume 11. Goings On At Seashore- It’s that time again: As hard as it is to believe the NEERHS Annual Meeting is four weeks away (27 April) and one week later (4 May) is Seashore’s opening day for the season. This all means that things are getting into high gear readying things for both Annual Meeting and opening day. This of course leads to the need for volunteers - as we all know this stuff doesn’t just happen. There is an ongoing (Year-Round) need for Town House Shop Volunteers to assist in both restoration of the collection an the ongoing maintenance of the Museum’s operating fleet. If it was done in the era of the electrics, Seashore’s town House Shop does it now: welding, machining, woodworking, electrical, upholstery— just some of the skills required to take restore, maintain, and even build these precious vehicles. Restoration projects rely on volunteer labor to complement and supplement the efforts of restoration employees. Please contact Restoration Shop Director, Randy Leclair, at [email protected] for more information, or to express your interest. Do You Recognize- Last Month’s Do You Recognize - The predecessor of the our line this month was the Omaha Horse Railway Company incorporated by an act of the Nebraska Territorial Legislature in 1867. By the late 1870s the line had 18 miles (29 km) of track, 10 cars, 70 horses, 20 employees and 495,000 passengers annually. In 1886 the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company was incorporated by the then Nebraska State Legislature. The proposal was to build a bridge and railway M20 - Closed Car From Predecessor Line. Perhaps a Converted Horsecar connecting the Omaha in the recently admitted state of Nebraska with the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa across the longest river on the continent (The Missouri). The proposal for a combined wagon and Open Car #77 railway bridge over the river was accepted by the Congress and the secretary of war in 1887. The line was among the earliest major electric street railway systems in the nation and was given a guaranteed monopoly for streetcar #294 Closed Car - American Car Co. (1907) service in the two cities. In 1887 the Omaha Motor Railway was formed when the when the Omaha Horse Railway and the Omaha Cable Tramway Company were consolidated under the leadership of Samuel D. Mercer. The last horse car route in the city ceased operation in June 1895. In 1898 the Omaha Street Railway, ordered new cars, and repaired, refurbished older cars and made other improvements in the amount of $100,000 (roughly $3,000,000 in today’s money) in anticipation of Omaha's Trans-Mississippi Exposition. By 1902 all of the electric- powered railways were consolidated in the #170 - Closed Car @ Carhouse Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company with the consolidated company being sold to a New York City-based syndicate for $4,000,000 ($116,000,000 today). The newly organized Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company bought the railway and bridge company in 1902, taking a hundred year lease on the city's rails, also acquiring other local transportation franchises, including including the Omaha Street Railway Company and the Council Car # 12 - 10 ft. box purchased 2nd-hand from the Boston Elevated Railway (1899) Bluffs Street Railway Company. A wealthy local banker Gurdon Wattles bought the railway and bridge company along with several competing local lines and merged them into the Omaha Traction Company in the early 1900s with the company continuing to use the railway & bridge company brand. Car #418 In Lead For Employee Picnic in 1915 The Omaha Traction Company was the focus of some dark days as the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees attempted to unionize workers in the Omaha Traction Company starting in 1902. That early effort faded within a year, however, the banker formed the Omaha Business Men's Association to continue fighting the prospect of losing the city's open shop status. Wattles resisted any unionization within his businesses and the city. When workers struck in early September 1909 he quickly hired strikebreakers from across the country to cross picket lines. He further provoked unionizers by publicly refusing arbitration in two of the city's business community's organs, the Omaha Bee and the Omaha Herald. Starting September 19, 1909 mobs rioted in the downtown streets destroying streetcars, terrorizing company officials and attacking Car # 22 - 28 ft. Semi-convertable - Laconia (1900) strikebreakers. The banker kept the strikebreakers on, hiring others from eastern United States cities to come in until the strikers agreed to his terms. The riots continued through September 23, 1909, eventually subsiding to the pressure of the strikebreakers. In April 1935 the fragile truce broke causing a long, violent strike. The company hired strikebreakers from Brooklyn and several other Eastern cities. Within days the company rolled out heavily protected streetcars, complete with windows covered by heavy wire and armed guards on board. While the cars attracted few passengers they initially encountered little resistance. The company resisted calls for arbitration from the City Council and continued employing strikebreakers. In early May violence broke out, with workers' attacking the streetcars and strikebreakers by rifle attacks, violent beatings and bombings across the city. In June further Car # 1009 in June 1948 riots broke out with mobs' burning streetcars and looting. There were two deaths. The city government lost control of the violence and called for the National Guard, which sent 1,800 troops. Governor Car #1501 - American Car Co. (1920) Robert Cochran declared martial law and ordered the streetcars to stop running. After the governor intervened Wattles agreed to arbitration and a number of agreements were made with workers' representatives. However no substantive changes were made and strikebreakers stayed on the job. The violence ended, court cases ensued, and the situation slowly faded. The AK-SAR-BEN (Nebraska spelled backwards) Interstate Bridge. The first road bridge to cross the Missouri River connecting Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Built by the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company in 1888 and designed to handle streetcars. In 1943 in what might be considered necessity enlightenment the company began training women as streetcar operators after many of its male drivers were called into military service during WW II. The women were even paid the same wages as their male counterparts. Car #801 @ Union Bus Depot On East side of the River Yet again in the late 1940’s the company came under the spotlight of unwanted attention as it became the target of a general boycott called by the DePorres Club, a central group in Omaha's civil rights movement. The youth-led organization targeted the railway for its segregation practices and poor service to the Near North Side minority neighborhood. This was four years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The system had thrived through the 1920s, survived the labor unrest, and enjoyed a resurgence during World War II but in the aftermath of the boycott the automobile and urban sprawl proved to be a one-two knockout combination. The company junked its streetcars in favor of buses with the last ceremonial ride coming on March 5, 1955. This Month’s Do You Recognize - Our 36.5 mile line-of-interest was an affiliate of an approximately 30 mile interurban directly to its north. Both lines, although operated independently, were ultimately controlled by the same eastern-based management company. Our line was built in 1902, much earlier than its northern neighbor’s 1910 beginning, and also closed some eleven years earlier. Our line of interest was completed between two large cities in the same state that were already used Car #525 - Parlor-Observation Trailer to local electric car service. In October 5, 1902, a St. Louis Car (1910) total of 36 miles and a 2-mile branch were opened. Motorized on one truck as trailer too heavy The interurban, named after the endpoints, was promoted by a major eastern investment banking firm. Later that same year it was renamed for the area along an inlet from the Pacific where most of the state’s population resides as an Electric Railway Company in conjunction with control passing to another eastern management company. The endpoint city systems were under common control. The line was physically one of the best lines of the earlier built and one of the Car #514 - Heavy interurban - Cincinnati (1910) first third-rail lines. It was blessed with One of last two heavy interurbans purchased #514 & #529 flat territory with minimal obstructions passing through a prosperous agricultural area. Operation was over private right-of-way utilizing third-rail except in the urban areas where street running required overhead catenary. Before the advent of significant auto and truck competition the company’s prospects appeared outstanding and, in fact, early earnings reports reflected this reality. Brill and Cincinnati provided a fleet of fairly standard wooden arch-window cars of the period with some 10 by Brill in 1902 and Car #504 Light Interurban - J.G.Brill Co. (1902) couple more from Cincinnati in 1910.